Maine three masted schooner by Bedford - Radio - 1:54

[popeye the sailor]

sorry to see that........but she did well under nominal power.  you have to feel good about that   did she take on any water during the trial, or was it a factor in the motor's demise?

[Bedford]

Happy to say she remained as dry as a bone throughout the test.

 

It appears that the coupling on the motor shaft was a bit too close to the motor and under thrust conditions it rubbed on the motor itself causing it to bind up. This led to a high current draw from the motor which in turn burned out the battery lead before any other damage was done, thankfully.

 

I have re-attached the coupling and replaced the lead and all is well.

[michael mott]

Steve very cool, the smoke must have given you a skip of the heart beats especially after the weird noise.

 

I will have mine on a trailer to the lake.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

Almost a good trial, Steve.  Pity about the engine room explosion at the end, but it certainly looked impressive.  She was sailing at quite a fast scale speed, actually - don't get her over fast or she'll just look like a toy on the water.

 

Was that the Platypus doing a splash at the base of the tree?

 

John

[Bedford]

Yes Michael, new model, heaps of hours and thought, not to mention $ put into it and SMOKE rising!

 

I was lucky she was back into shallow enough water that I oculd get to her fairly easily and thankfully no more smoke rose so I wasn't in too much of a panic.

 

I was going to gently motor in past the rock and end the trial but she had to get pushed in past it.

 

John, yes the low speed looks right and will be most commonly used but having all that power in reserve means the auxilliary power will have a good chance of overcoming the wind should the need arrise.

 

After the test I moved the throttle servo to a variable auxilliary channel on the radio because then I can just set the speed where I want it and forget it. With it on the same stick as the rudder you tend to be powering up and down and even into reverse accidentally while steering. Most importantly while she is under sail I won't accidentally engage the motors.

 

At this point I envisage motoring out until she is free to navigate and then raising the sails and vice-versa when bringing her in.

 

Yes, the splash near the tree was the platypus. I know they are out there and I have gone out many times and sat quietly in the late afternoon hoping to see them but they are ellusive little buggers and to date I have never actually seen one properly.

[mtaylor]

Steve,

 

That was, in my opinion, and excellent trial.  You tested and found a failure point.  Better to find it now than later. 

[Bedford]

Mark, you are of course right. The whole idea of sea trials is to find weak links and induce the failures that are impending and to that end it was an extremely successful trial. Especially given that no harm was done to ship or systems.

 

I would hate to see that smoke rising slowly through closed deck houses etc with a deck on and the hull closed and no idea just how bad it is.

 

I took her out again yesterday evening for a trial with the smaller motors fitted without the reduction gearboxes and while they are more than capable of driving her to scale speed and then some, they seemed to make her harder to control. On return to shore I noticed that the starboard motor starts before the port motor, they should be the same. When ramping up the speed very slowly there are probably 200 revs in the starboard before the port starts and this matches the handling issues. Obviously the starboard is pushing harder than the port motor so I will ditch them and re-fit the larger 540 can motors knowing that they will effortlessly handle her under any conditions.

[Bedford]

I was going to move the motors forward when mounting them permanently, this would have meant no cutting ribs and it would have helped move the centre of gravity forward but this involved making drive shaft extensions, I made one that would fit over the 3mm prop shaft and reduced down to fit into the 3mm coupling on the double cardon joint.

 

 

I was concerned though because a double cardon will allow the shaft to move sideways so it could bend out of true under power which would be catastrophic so I ditched that idea and cut out some ribbing and mounted them with the couplings direct onto the prop shafts.

 

 

After fitting the  motors I floated her in the bath and powered her up to make sure the motors and props were operating properly and freely. Holding the stern down to the correct water level I powered her up to a reasonably high speed and the motors sang in harmony like a twin engine plane does (for anyone who knows what I mean) this told me they are well ballanced and should not cause the handling issues the mis-matched smaller motors did.

 

 

I also made frames to locate the masts in the correct position so I can move onto the next phase of construction.

 

 

Before I can fit the deck I need to rig her and get all the operating systems fitted and working properly. Then I can close the hull. This means partially fitting the standing rigging and fitting the running rigging then unshipping the lot so I can fit the deck and deck houses etc.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Bedford

[michael mott]

 

Before I can fit the deck I need to rig her and get all the opersting systems fitted and working properly. Then I can close the hull.

This one area that concerns me regarding my own build.

 

It is very informative following along with you build and seeing how you solve the various operational issues. She does look good sitting in the water.

 

Michael

[captainbob]

When I was building R/C, except for the drive shaft, I always waited until the deck was on and then mounted running and control equipment through openings under removable deck houses, hatches and such.  You will want to be able to remove that equipment through these openings for repair.

 

Bob

[Bedford]

Bob, yes all the hardware will be accessable via deck houses and hatches but the running rigging will be in brass tube which will be fixed in the hull and never be seen again, this way I don't have rigging running through a bunch of blocks below deck which could be a maintenance nightmare.

 

I have to make sure it is all aligned where it needs to be and everything fits and works freely before I fit the deck.

 

I think that if I build another such model I will approach the hull / deck / control and rigging from a VERY different angle, the idea is rattling around in my head now but it is way too late to do it with the schooner.

[captainbob]

Bedford, every time I build a boat I get ideas to make the next differently.

 

Bob

[Bedford]

I have been otherwise occupied for the last few days, yesterday I was just about to start work on the schooner when my son knocked on the door and said "wanna come 4wd'ing" uuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmm, yeah! Only 10 mins from home is a nice place with plenty of variety but I didn't get home til 7:30 and was a bit tired so didn't touch it.

 

Today, on my way home from work and my son rings, "Dad, can you do me a favour"? mmmmm, what?

"Come and get me unstuck" He was about 20K's out of town up a track he should not have attempted on his own and I had to winch my car around his so I could winch him out, 3.5 hours after I left work I got home!

 

No work on the schooner tonight either !

 

Wish me luck for tomorrow.

[captainbob]

I agree It tough when life gets in the way of fun.       

 

Bob

[Bedford]

More hold ups, I got my dear old mums' old sewing machine out to try my hand at sail making and it didn't work, I could not get the bobbin working. I reasoned that dear old mum had no mechanical aptitude at all and she could do it so I must be over thinking it. I asked a lady friend to come and see what she could do with it but she had no luck either.

 

Tonight I started pulling it apart and bits of the bevel gear that drives the bobbin fell out onto the table. That's terminal in a 40 year old machine so I will borrow the afore mentioned friends' machine.

 

Michael, you were talking about all the things you saved over the years and while I try to limit the amount of bits I keep, the macine is full of cams, gears, shafts, specialised screws and a good healthy motor and speed control unit. I will be stripping the machine out before I toss it.

[captainbob]

 I will be stripping the machine out before I toss it.

 

I strip everything I toss.  I get more moters that way.

 

Bob

[Bedford]

It's been a while, no reasons, no excuses, I just haven't felt like doing anything with her.....

 

I am in the process of making chain plates but had to get more brass to do it so while waiting I fitted the shroud tables and realised that she looked a bit unfinished in the hull. Then I realised she needed a stripe.

 

 

 

[michael mott]

Steve the white stripe really helps to define the shape of the hull, nice job.

 

Michael

[captainbob]

Ah, what lovely curves she has.  What a beauty.

 

Bob

[Jim Lad]

Yes, the stripe looks really good, mate!

 

John

[Bedford]

It does define her lines very nicely. Funny, I have always thought it was missing something and then after not working on it for a week or so it just screamed for that stripe when I went back to it.

[Bedford]

I have tried a few ideas and come up with a suitable chainplate that will look the part I reckon.

Mass production tomorrow.

 

 

[michael mott]

That looks like a good clean design Steve.

 

Michael

[Bedford]

I tried to come up with all kinds of fancy ways of doing them, partially because I didn't trust the solder to hold them in the way I have ended up going. But I used 40/60 solder instead of the softer 60/40 and they seem to be quite strong. So I went with the K.I.S.S. method you see in the pics.

 

I should have realised the 40/60 would be strong enough after I made the bull bar pictured for my RC Land Rover, It is all brass and 40/60 solder and I can pick the vehicle up by the bullbar and it weighs 3.5Kg!

 

[Bedford]

Chain plates

To get the correct angle on the chain plates I fit the masts at the correct angle and run a line of cord where the shroud will go, I centre it over the dead eye and continue down onto the hull. This shows where the chain plate needs to attach in order to get the straight line with the shroud.

 

 

In this case I then drilled two 1mm holes through the hull using the chain plate holes as the template.

 

I then used a magnet to weed out the brass plated steel nails from my nail tin and selected 60 long brass nails which were then annealed to soften them for bending.

 

Once all that had ben done I mixed a small amount of epoxy and put a blob (technical term) on each hole on the inside of the hull for one station at a time, ie starboard mizzen chain plates first. I then pushed that through the hull with my finger so I had a small sphere of epoxy on the outside of the hull at each hole. This ensured the hole was filled with epoxy to ensure water could not get into the wood.

 

Then I place the nails through one chain plate and while pressing them firmly against the hull with my thumb I used pliers to bend the inboard end of the nail over to form a rudimentary rivet. When all are done I will apply some thickened epoxy over each of these to ensure it won't move or foul anything and it will be water tight.

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

That ought to keep them firmly in place, mate!

 

John

[Shazmira]

Just asking since this type of boat is so different from anything I have worked on thus far, but are the chainplates to scale? They look really long in the pics, but perhaps that is angle or close up that makes them look that way.

[Bedford]

Robbyn, going off the plan I am working from they are a tad short. I made them that way to keep the holes out of the water as much as possible. Not that the few mm I cut off will make much difference.

 

I am guessing they were long because the later ships really pushed it and they needed to be as strong as possible so the further down the hull they reach the better.

[Bedford]

Progress

 

 

 

 

[Shazmira]

Steve, thanks for the explanation, that makes perfect sense when you say it that way. Wow, you are at the rigging stage....I am excited for you. So this means you will not be doing any sort of deck furnishings? I would guess as an rc model, it serves a different purpose and they aren't needed, especially when there is a chance they could get wet, or throw off the balance of the ship